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Creation of IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group

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Aymen Omrane/IFEX-TMG

Back in 2005, 13 members came together as the IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group (IFEX-TMG) to highlight serious violations of free expression, including rampant Internet censorship in Tunisia as it prepared to host a major UN forum on Internet freedom. Today, the group numbers 21 IFEX members monitoring the challenges of the country's transition to democracy as it struggles to shake off old habits of decades of dictatorship.

Back then, the IFEX-TMG worked to free human rights lawyer Mohamed Abbou, one of the first people jailed for posting criticism of the government on the Internet. Today, the Internet is uncensored, and human rights activists can operate freely, including the IFEX-TMG, which has now undertaken nine missions to the country, including the first major one we chose to highlight below. Yet concerns remain that the country's prospects for viable freedom of expression is slipping away. The latest IFEX-TMG report "Spring into Winter?", being presented to the authorities next week, highlights the still fragile hold on democracy.

A significant increase in violence against journalists was registered during the year, culminating in the assault by police officers of more than 30 journalists attempting to cover a high-profile terrorist attack in Tunis in November.

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